The color correction of monitors is a basic function for ordinary users. But for printing, digital printing, scanning, advertising design and other professional users, color correction is one of the very important step. Because if you do not color correction before the image output, it is likely to appear from the screen to see the color and the printout of the color inconsistency of the situation. And if your monitor color deviation is very strong, it will directly affect such as scanning, printing and all kinds of color and dealing with the operation. So how should you do color correction? What are the methods? Next let us solve these problems one by one.
First of all, choose a good monitor is particularly important. Good CRT, there are color temperature presets, RGB component adjustments, and more digital inputs, these are calibrated for the monitor to lay a good foundation, because a good monitor, put it color calibration is more likely.
At present, most of the mainstream monitors support sRGB color correction function, so that we support sRGB input and output devices, such as monitors, color printers, etc., as long as the start of this function, you can make the output screen in terms of accuracy, color, color difference, etc. and we see on the screen to achieve consistency, to achieve the "What you see is what you get!
In addition, many monitors come with color correction software, such as Samsung's Natural color color correction software. Using it, you can achieve rich color correction to match the needs of printouts, pictures, and images converted between programs. Simply put, this color correction software has a much richer range of adjustments than the single `S-RGB standard', but unfortunately it is currently only available in English.
As the software calibration is very susceptible to the influence of the external environment, so before calibration should do the following:
(1) In order to make the monitor stable display, open the monitor for at least half an hour or more;
(2) set and maintain the intensity of indoor lighting, regardless of how to take the monitor color calibration methods, must be in certain "
(3) Close all desktop graphics on the monitor, and change the background color to bright gray (17% gray) to prevent the background color interference with color vision;
(4) Because of a variety of factors, the monitor can not be maintained for a long period of time to maintain stable work, the need to calibrate the monitor every month or shorter;
(5) The monitor can be calibrated once a month;
(6) The monitor should be calibrated once a month or shorter.
Having solved the environmental problem, we now introduce the use of the calibration software that comes with the Apple and PC respectively.
1. In the Apple (Mac) operating system comes with Gamma Control Panel monitor color calibration software. The steps are as follows:
(1) Set the monitor brightness and contrast at a value that is comfortable for the user's vision, and keep it constant;
(2) Set the Gamma value to 1.8, and drag the slider knob forward and backward until the gray bar is similar in chromaticity to the calibration bar;
(3) Determine the White Point, take the commonly used printing coated paper, place it on one end of the monitor, and slide the panel to the other side of the monitor. At one end of the monitor, slide the panel on the red, green, blue color slide knob, until the white on the monitor and the white of the coated paper in the warm and cold, brightness and darkness to reach the maximum similarity, and then save the value;
(4) Adjustment of the Blance (Balance) slider knob to eliminate all possible deviations from the monitor. It is best to have a dedicated gray scale to help compare;
(5) According to this setup to complete several cover design production, proofs and books successively with the monitor on the original color comparison, and fine-tune the gap between each other, until the minimum difference.
2. In the compatible machine (Pc) operating system can be through the Adobe Gamma utility for monitor color calibration
Adobe Gamma utility can be calibrated monitor contrast and brightness, grayscale (mid-tone), color balance and white field. It eliminates color casts in monitor displays, makes monitor grays as neutral as possible, and standardizes the display of images on different monitors (any combination of monitor and graphics card). The steps are as follows:
(1) Follow the instructions described in the utility program;
(2) Select "Load" and choose the ICC profile that most closely matches your monitor, and use this as a starting point to calibrate your monitor;
(3) Adjust the contrast and brightness of your monitor to the maximum values, and then adjust the "Color Balance" and "White Field". (3) Adjust the contrast and brightness on the monitor to their maximum values, then adjust the "Brightness" and "Contrast" so that the interlocking gray squares in the top bar are as dark as possible (but not black), while keeping the bottom bar bright white;
(4) For the "Phosphor " selection item, select a type of monitor. If no suitable type is listed, select "Custom" and enter the red, green, and blue phosphors specified by the monitor's manufacturer;
(5) For the "Gray Scale Factor" selection, select any of the following options to establish the current gray scale factor setting (1) "Show only one grayscale" adjusts the grayscale factor based on a combination of grayscale readings. Drag the slider under Grayscale Preview until the center box disappears into the pattern box. 2) Do not select "Show One Grayscale Only" to adjust the grayscale factor based on the red, green, and blue readings. Drag the slider under each box until the center box matches the pattern box;
(6) For "Gamma Value", select the desired target gamma factor. For example, the default target gamma is 2.2 in Windows and 1.8 in Mac systems;
(7) For "Hardware", select the white field of the monitor according to the monitor manufacturer's instructions to determine whether to use warm or cool white. You can also measure the monitor's white field by selecting "Measure" and following the on-screen instructions;
(8) For "Adjustment", if you know the color temperature of the final image display, select it here. Otherwise, select "Same as hardware";
(9) Store the settings.
Glossary:
An ICC profile is a description of a color space, and the ICC profile format is a cross-programming standard defined by the International Color Consortium (ICC for International Color Consortium). ICC profiles are used to accurately reproduce color across platforms, devices, and ICC-compliant applications such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe PageMaker. Designers can choose from existing ICC profiles or create their own, and these profiles become the standard for displaying monitor color.
Alternatively, we can use hardware calibration for color correction, where a monitor is calibrated with a dedicated device that attaches a color calibrator with a suction cup to the monitor and measures the light beam. Compare the color light value measured by the suction cup with the internal constants and fine-tune the monitor until they are the same. The use of hardware calibration is characterized by ease of operation and greater accuracy, but it is not suitable for individual users due to its high price, so it will not be described in detail here. ;